All financial institutions – regardless of size or geographies – have been targeted by the same sophisticated, organised criminals across multiple channels, business lines and financial products, according to Rob Anderson, general manager of operational risk and security for NAB.

In recent years, he said that fraud cases have increased in complexity and creativity, which has meant that financial services organisations need to be able to react very quickly to new forms of fraudulent activity.

From NAB’s perspective, Anderson said that fraud management must be a true end-to-end process, which encompasses prevention, detection and response.

This three step process needs to be implemented in such a way that ownership of each step is clear, while all steps are coordinated across all areas of the business and within any change management processes, he said.

Anderson added that there are some fundamental control concepts in fraud management that remain as relevant today as ever before.

“For example, segregating duties is the very foundation of our dependency upon dual factor authentication measures across various payment channels, anti-fraud controls that have both increased customer confidence and importantly, provided greater assurance for stakeholders,” he said.

The introduction and implementation of whistleblowing processes, especially within financial services, has also become an integral part of a building an anti-fraud culture, according to Anderson.

He said that key features of an effective whistleblower program must include: a top-down policy which is driven from the Board; engagement from all key stakeholders and leaders during implementation; provision for employees to be able to raise concerns confidentially (and anonymously if necessary); and effective channels to collect data and deliver both feedback to people making disclosures, as well as provide for capture of learning’s and remedial actions.